In the Fall 2007 semester, Jalyn and I taught a class about the Civil War to some local youth. In the process, we watched Gettysburg and I was hit with an enormous case of hero worship for Lieutenant (eventually General) Joshua Chamberlain.
I'm 51 years old and had never heard of him. Or, if in my long past years of high school history he was mentioned, somehow I missed it. Being stricken with a character in a movie, a man supposedly real, awakened my unquenchable need for research. Being a genealogist, the first thing I did was go to the census records of the 1800s. Of course, it would have been easier to simply go to the Internet, but at the time, I really didn't think this man who impressed me was really all that famous. So, I went to what I do best, census records.
I found Joshua Chamberlain first living with his childhood family. Then I missed him. Then I found him in other census records as a professor at a college shortly before the war, as president of the college, as governor of Maine, and as a surveyor. Cool. An interesting life.
Then I started looking online. Oh my! What a wealth of information. Apparently, I'm not the only one taken with this Maine man. He was expert in several languages, which got him the professorship at the college in Literature and languages. Then he went to war. This man who specialized in things like poetry and words, suddenly at war.
The movie, Gettysburg, had a few important things wrong. One of those was that not only was Joshua there and in charge of his men, but one of those men was his younger brother. Yes, the film got that part right, but what it didn't get right, was during the battle, his OTHER brother, who was a medic, had also arrived on the battlefield and the three Chamberlain boys were all together. At one point, an explosion nearly took all three out, and one of the sons mentioned that it would have been a sad day for their mother.
Chamberlain wrote some excellent books on his life in the Civil War, on the battles, on the incredible Men from Maine. He was responsible for some very important things that allowed the South to surrender with dignity, one being that he required that absolutely no negative things be said or done while the Rebel army marched to surrender. And then he required that they be honored.
Joshua Chamberlain was the only man given a field promotion to the rank of General by U. S. Grant. After the war, Chamberlain went on to be president of the college, governor of Maine, a representative of the US overseas, and a surveyor.
I was so excited about this incredible man, that when my granddaughter, Faith Harsh, was blessed, and we were gathered in one of the Harsh's homes I mentioned him, saying that I had just learned of him, had bought all his books and some written about him. And the entire Harsh family started talking about what a hero he was to their family. I sat there thinking - "Everybody knows about this man but me - where have I been?"
Then the next semester we taught WWII. I do much better here. I know and have several heroes from WWII. I talked to the youth about the Kindertransport, about Denmark, about Sugihara, about Jalyn's Great Uncle who survived and wrote about the Bataan Death March, Chabannes, and so many others.
Then, this week, my daughter, Cheyanne, sat and talked with me one afternoon. Somehow we ended up talking about Vietnam, the boat people, the fall of Saigon, the ending of the draft and other things I had actually lived through as a teen and adult. Cheyanne listened to me talk about that sad time, and before I knew it, she had tears filling her eyes and spilling over onto her cheeks.
Then last night, Neil and I watched a 2006 movie called, Rescue Dawn with Christian Bale. In this incredible film (a very small amount of language, no nudity or sexual content, but obviously violence, still, the worst was changed for the viewer's sake), anyway, this incredible film was about a small part of the life of Dieter Dengler. A man, like Chamberlain, that I had no idea existed.
I couldn't let what I saw in the movie rest. I woke early and started researching on the Internet. I wanted to know what was true, and what was Hollywood about the film. I as stunned by the life of Dieter. A life of heroism and survival that began with his grandfather. Dieter was a German who immigrated to America so he could fly planes. His grandfather, was labeled an enemy of the Nazis because he was the only person in his village who refused to vote for Hitler. And no matter how life-threatening the attacks against him, he held his ground and refused. This had a tremendous influence on Dieter, who later refused to sign a paper presented to him by the North Vietnamese denouncing America.
Dieter survived five months in a Laos torture camp, orchestrating an escape of all prisoners, surviving in the jungle, and on the 22nd day following his escape he was finally rescued. Later, as a civilian test pilot, he survived four more airplane crashes, and near-drowning when his boat cabin filled with water. "Before being captured in Laos, he had attended the Navy survival school where he escaped from the mock-POW camp run by Marine guards three times. He had also set a record as the only student to actually gain weight during the course - from feasting on garbage!" Wikipedia
The movie was accurate in many ways. But the ending was a typical Hollywood ending. I think of it as meaning to show the hero's spirit rather than his actual physical condition. You can read more about him at the Wikipedia site, and at the Arlington Cemetery site.
Dieter wrote a book about his POW experience titled, "Escape from Laos." "People say it was a miracle," he said in a 1979 interview, "I came out because I was meant to come out. I cannot say it was my doing. It's beyond strength to do something like that. Something, someone has to help you." Quote found on the Arlington Cemetery site.
It makes me ponder the question, how many more Heroes are there, really, people I have no idea even existed. I know about my personal heroes, people, normal people, who have impacted my life. But there are innumerable others, who impact not only individual lives, but whose courage and faith have a power to reach beyond their earthly life and touch others throughout the ages. Who are they? And if I don't know about them, who will teach my children about them?
More importantly to my family is this thought. If I do not write about my life, how will they ever find the bits and pieces that will make me a hero to one of my descendants, giving them that little something they need in their daily life to continue the faith and win the race?
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